Moving On
by Avalon-and-Dimity
Summary: After the Malfoys disappear from the wizarding world no one knows where they went, but Harry and Hermione find out and it isn't exactly a happy place.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters._

_The Knox family is however of my own creating._

* * *

**Moving On**

The bullying started at the beginning of first year. Various students of all houses and years made rude comments to him regarding his family, and himself. Scorpius tried to hide his pain, but he wasn't very good at doing so. Progressively, things became worse. Soon, even some muggle born students had joined in. It just wasn't fair. He hadn't been part of the wizarding wars and neither had they but they still accused him of the heinous crime of the past. A few times teachers had caught the students responsible, but they couldn't stop it. The whole school was in on it. So half way through second year Scorpius left Hogwarts.

No one knew where he'd transferred. He could have been anywhere. He could have even been homeschooling. It wasn't just that Scorpius had dropped from the face of the Earth, the entire Malfoy family had uprooted and disappeared. There were whispers that Draco had moved them all to the muggle world to escape the prejudice against them. The same number of people who believed these rumors also doubted them.

* * *

"I don't like this place," Hermione told Harry as they walked down the streets of Gilded Hollow.

"You asked to come with me for the investigation," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, because I knew that a number of other aurors would be unfair in interrogating the divernvirs,"Hermione explained. "But, this place is unsettling."

Harry had only recently learned what a divernvir was. It was basically a magical person who was not a wizard and powers did not stem from a transmittable disease like werewolfism. The word covered a wide variety of people, not all of which liked being classed together.

Gilded Hollow was a neighborhood crowded with large numbers of divernvirs, few of which looked upon the aurors with anything but hate. The streets desperately needed to be repaved and it was hard to tell the abandoned buildings from those currently used. A while back they'd passed the local school which Hermione was horrified to look at.

"I believe it's this one," Harry said stopping in front of a narrow town house surrounded on both sides by houses of the same design. He knocked on the door.

The door opened the hinges squeaked loudly. It was a wonder the door didn't come off. A girl who had to be around Al and Rose's age was standing in front of them.

Hermione smiled. "Hello, were aurors with the ministry of magic. We were just looking for a Mr. Channing Knox."

The girl's eye narrowed and she turned around. "Mum, there are aurors looking for Daddy."

There was a loud crash and a woman with light brown locks came to the door. Before speaking with the aurors she looked at the girl bewildered. "He just dove under the table."

"You know he doesn't like wizards."

"I sorry, Channing Knox dove under the table?" Harry asked confused.

"Oh, no. My husband is at work. The boy from next door always has dinner with us because his dad works late with Channing." The woman held out her hand. "I'm Marion Knox, and that was my daughter Crimson."

"Marion," Harry started testing out the new name, "where does your husband work? We do need to talk to him."

"About what?" Marion inquired.

Hermione began explaining, "There have been several murders with dark magic involved. Your husband was friends with one of the newest victims. We just wanted to ask a few questions."

A look of relief washed over Marion's face. "He works at the bar down the street: Lapin Blanc. Crimson can take you there."

Harry hadn't really been listening he was too distracted by trying to see into the kitchen were dinner was waiting nicely on three plates atop the table and Crimson was talking to someone under the table.

"Crimson, get him out," Marion told her daughter.

"He's not coming," replied Crimson.

"May I try?" Harry asked. Marion nodded and Harry walked towards the table. Crimson reluctantly stepped back giving him space.

Gently, Harry lifted the table cloth to look underneath. "Scorpius?" he blurted out seeing the boy holding his knees to his chest in the shadows.

"M-Mr. Potter, how nice to see you." Scorpius was just as pale and frail as last Harry had seen him.

"Wait it's Scorpius?" Hermione's voice came from above before she too was under the Knox's table.

"Hullo, Mrs. Weasley," Scorpius greeted.

"You know them?" Crimson slid beside him. Scorpius nodded.

"I am not joining your little party down there," Marion called. "Beside shouldn't the two aurors continue on their investigation?"

"Right," Harry nodded in agreement even though Marion couldn't see. "Crimson would you take us to Lapin Blanc?"

Crimson shrugged and headed towards the door taking Scorpius with her. Harry and Hermione took this as a signal to follow.

"Scorpius how long have you lived in Guilded Hollow?" Hermione asked.

"I moved here with Da a few months after leaving Hogwart." It was obvious Scorpius's upper class accent was fading fast and would be entirely gone by the time he reached adulthood.

"Why here?"

Scorpius took a moment to ponder this question before answering. He hadn't really thought about it. "I think it was easy. Da doesn't have the skills to work in the muggle world, but he'd made up his mind that we were leaving the wizarding world so to the divernvir world it was. It's not too different here anyways."

"It did take us a while to get use to Scorpius and Mr. Malfoy," Crimson offered in. "Wizards aren't very welcome around here."

* * *

Lapin Blanc smelled of alcohol, which was to be expected considering it was a bar, however the smell was so strong that it was in their noses before they reached the door. The inside was just as welcoming as the outside, which was to say not at all. It was a rather small room crowded with tables and chairs in the middle and to the left the counter. Wiping down the counter was none other than Draco Malfoy.

Draco looked up and scowled at the two adults of the group. "What do you want?" His accent was still spot on.

"Channing Knox," Harry answered.

"He's busy," Draco told them.

"With what exactly?"

"Is Daddy in a fight? I want to watch!" Crimson piped.

Draco grabbed a chunk of black hair as she sped towards the door at the back of the room. "Yes, and you must be sixteen to watch the fights."

Crimson crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry, fight?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Honestly, why are you even Head Auror? You know nothing."

"Divernvirs are permitted to hold public fights as a source of income. I would say it's like wrestling but you're far less likely to lose a limb doing that," explained Hermione.

"You can go in. It's something you need to see," Draco said looking right at Harry.

"Please, can I go in?" Crimson begged. Draco didn't even honor her with a response.'

"I don't get why you'd even wanna go in," Scorpius said.

"Have you seen the fights?" Crimson glared at him.

"I've seen how your da looks when he comes out."

As if on cue a flow of people exited the back room. Some appear very unhappy and others were waving handfuls of money in the air. After the initial crowd passed through leaving several to drink their winnings two men appeared covered in bandaged.

"Channing," Draco yelled, "you've attached the attention of the ministry."

One of the men hurried over as the other one disappeared out the door. He was not too tall but he made up for that with his large muscles. "What did I do?" Channing looked at them with an utterly clueless face.

"We just need you to answer a few questions regarding Fergus Marshall," Harry told him.

Channing looked at Crimson and then said, "Of course, but can we step outside and save Crim and Scorp from any of the gory details."

Upon return from the short interrogation in which Channing gave no trouble, he insisted on buying a shot for everyone in the bar who wanted one. No one declined but it wasn't so many people that it was be a particularly large sum of money being spent. "It's tradition the winner always gets everyone a shot of dragon's breath, and Crim and Scorp can have shots of butterbeer."

Hermione and Harry both looked at the multicolored liquid Draco had placed in front of them uneasily as Channing made a toast. "To not being ripped to shreds. Let's hope I can pull it off again next time."

Some people laughed others cheered and all downed the strange substance. It didn't exactly taste good, but it also wasn't bad. The after taste did leave an odd burning sensation in the mouth which explained its name.

"Well, I guess we're off," Harry announced standing up from his stood.

"Good-bye," Crimson waved with no enthusiasm as they left. She and Scorpius were invested in a game of exploding snap that Scorpius was winning much to her dismay.

Draco muttered something that could quite possibly have been: "Good residence".

* * *

"That's a riot!" Ron burst out when Hermione told him what happened later that night.

"Shhh..." she pressed her fingure to her lips. The children were sleeping. "It's not Ronald. It's sad. Over twenty years after the wizarding wars, but we can't forget about them. The Malfoys were driven away. I don't even know where Draco's parents are, and from how Scorpius spoke I don't even think Astoria lives with them." She sighed deeply. "You weren't there. It was like there was this absolute lack of hope for anything more. And it wasn't just seeing the Malfoys it was Gilded Hollow in general. There seem to be a rich future for anyone there."

Ron rubbed her on the back, "There's nothing you can do about it. The prejudices against the divernvir and the Malfoy family are deep in everyone's hearts. For now, it can't be changed."

* * *

_I don't know if it was any good but please review, or don't._


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